Former Samsung Electronics Legal Advisor Lee Jong-wang Passes Away at 73

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Lee Jong-wang, former Samsung Electronics legal counsel who served as the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Investigation Planning Officer, Kim & Chang lawyer, and Samsung Group Legal Office head, passed away on the afternoon of the 22nd. He was 73 years old.

Born in Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, he graduated from Kyungbock High School and Seoul National University Law School, and passed the 17th Judicial Examination in 1975. He was known as a member of the "8-in Club," a group of classmates from the 7th Judicial Research and Training Institute, along with former President Roh Moo-hyun (1946?2009), former Prosecutor General Jung Sang-myung, and former Constitutional Court Justice Cho Dae-hyun.

In 1991, he served as the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Public Relations Officer, in 1995 as Head of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Division 1, and from 1996 to 1997 as Chief of the 5th, 4th, and 1st Criminal Divisions of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office. In 1999, he became the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Investigation Planning Officer. At the end of 1999, during the reinvestigation of the so-called "clothing lobbying suspicion," when the prosecution leadership including Prosecutor General Park Soon-yong did not approve the arrest warrant request for former Blue House Legal Secretary Park Joo-sun, who was accused of leaking the so-called "Sajik-dong Team Final Report," he resigned and worked at Kim & Chang.

At Kim & Chang, starting with the SK Group accounting fraud case at the end of 2002, he handled the defense for SK, Hyundai, and LG Groups in the 2003 presidential election fund investigation. In the North Korea remittance suspicion case, he defended Chung Mong-hun (1948?2003), Chairman of Hyundai Asan's Board of Directors, handling major cases in the business world. He established ties with Samsung by defending former Everland President Heo Tae-hak in the convertible bond (CB) trial of Samsung Everland, and in July 2004, he was recruited as Samsung's standing legal counsel and head of the Legal Office (at the president level). In the same year, during the impeachment trial of President Roh Moo-hyun, he participated as a presidential legal representative alongside President Moon Jae-in, and in 2009, he was included in the funeral committee for former President Roh's national funeral.

However, when lawyer Kim Yong-chul, who served as the head of the group legal team in 2007, exposed Samsung Group's slush fund, Lee took responsibility and left Samsung. Trusted by former Chairman Lee Kun-hee (1942?2020), he returned to management in March 2010 and came back as the group legal counsel in June, but resigned again from the advisory position after Chairman Lee collapsed.